This is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day. Of course, human rights is a fundamental issue for people around the world every single day. It's a privilege to share with you All Things Reform's concerns in this particular day and age.
Democracy is very important in a nation's electoral process. Here, in the United States, the political system is dominated by only two parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We must open up our democracy to allow more voices for citizen consideration during the primaries and on general election day.
Presently, for example, the presidential race is basically only between our two major political parties. In a couple of the latest several general elections, third party candidacies have influenced voting outcomes: Independent Ross Perot in 1992 and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader in 2000. The two-party-dominated electoral politics rendered these powerful candidacies weak, yet even they influenced the winner-take-all electoral system's results.
Our electoral system must allow more eligible candidacies from outside the Democratic and Republican parties a prominent place during election season. Effective solutions include general election ballot access in the states, Instant Runoff Voting, voluntary public financing of elections and Proportional Representation.
When the voter during election season contemplates the candidates in the various races, they must not be pressured into considering only the two philosophies of the major parties. More choice is good for the democratic process, for the people and for a vibrant republic.
For further information on electoral reform, please visit FairVote, at http://www.fairvote.org/.
Showing posts with label human rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label human rights. Show all posts
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Open up our democracy for more voter choices during election day
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Reflections on World Water Day 2008
The theme for World Water Day 2008 is "Sanitation Matters." This year's theme highlights the fact that "adequate sanitation to protect health is considered a fundamental human right." Unfortunately, for roughly half the developing world, safe and reliable water is not accessible. The result is the daily tragedy of waterborne disease, which claims thousands of lives each day.
"Safe water and sanitation are vital to human health and are critical for the stability of nations around the globe," said AWWA Executive Director Gary Zimmerman. "In North America, clean water is often taken for granted, but World Water Day creates an opportunity to think about the extraordinary value of our precious water supplies and advance water treatment and delivery systems.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are around 2.2 million per year worldwide who die from diarrheal diseases caused by poor sanitation and lack of clean drinking water. Now that's a REAL water problem.
According to a British government minister, the world faces a future of "water wars", unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts.The warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day by writing to British prime minister Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies.
A lack of political will remains the greatest obstacle to efforts to drastically reduce the number of people without access to basic sanitation and clean, running water, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on the international community to take firmer and faster steps to tackle the problem.
“If we take up the challenge, the positive impact will reverberate far beyond better access to clean water,” Mr. Ban said in a message to mark World Water Day, which is celebrated today. This year's Day also coincides with the International Year of Sanitation.
“Every dollar invested in water and sanitation yields an estimate seven dollars worth of productive activity. And that comes on top of the immeasurable gains in cutting poverty, improving health and raising living standards.”
And of course, here in America, there are communities that struggle with water infrastructure issues (for instance, the colonias in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas). The issue of water in the western US is growing every year as population grows and the climate warms. Make this day one of reflection on the life-giving gift of water, and how much it is needed by our neighbors in this country and around the world.
Almost all Americans believe their government should pay attention to their views between elections
World Public Opinion has released results of a poll, revealing that 94% of Americans believe their leaders should pay attention to the views of the people as they're making their decisions. This overwhelmingly asserts our view that "the will of the people should be the basis of the authority of government," the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
More results of the poll are here. Clearly, twice as many Americans (79.9%) believe that America should be governed by the will of the people than believe it is actually occurring (40%). This is reflected by the fact that 81% say when making "an important decision" government leaders "should pay attention to public opinion polls because this will help them get a sense of the public's views."
All Things Reform supports these assertions, and encourages citizens to stay informed of today's news stories from reputable sources and follow up with own opinions on major bills and other issues currently being debated in the legislatures.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Help restore habeas corpus today
Public Citizen is running a grassroots email campaign in order to restore habeas corpus. I can't think of too many more important reforms about we, the people, than this! Here is their message:
You know the saying, "If at first you don't succeed..."?
We have another opportunity to restore the right to habeas corpus now. The Senate is debating the defense authorization bill again this week, and Senators Leahy and Dodd have re-introduced the bill to restore habeas corpus as an amendment. Meanwhile, many continue to languish without due process to review the lawfulness of their detainment, and still more of us remain vulnerable.
Your help is urgently needed again. Please call your senators now.
As the Founders understood, in denying someone else's freedom, we ultimately surrender our own.
Thank you for all you've done and for not backing down. Take a few moments today to restore habeas corpus!
Sincerely,
Daniel De Bonis, Online Organizer, Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division action@citizen.org
Thursday, May 31, 2007
The U.S. ranks 96th out of 121 countries around the world in peace
According to the first Global Peace Index, the United States is ranked 96th out of 121 countries in its peacefulness, and in the drivers that create and sustain that peace. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the country intelligence division of The Economist Group that publishes The Economist newspaper, compiled the Index. They measured countries' peacefulness based on a wide range of indicators - 24 in all - including ease of access to "weapons of minor destruction" (guns, small explosives), military expenditure, local corruption, and the level of respect for human rights.
I'm surprised it took this long to rank countries based on such an important topic. The only other powerful indicators of world peace might be the Nobel Peace Prize and Amnesty International; also, the Carter Center, headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalyn Carter reports its own findings, from its "waging peace" around the world.
The troubled U.S. government openness and transparency conditions contributed significantly to its low ranking. A high level of trust between public officials and the general public only exists when our candidates, who run for office, are both honest and accountable; this would be especially attainable in a national electoral system that is fair and equitable among its political parties.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
